Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Let me tell the story; I can tell it all.

He was out of luck, , paths, options. Scorned by his neighbors and classmates, in a marriage of necessity and a factory job he found stifling, he essentially quit everything. Wanted to run away to Mexico but was stopped short by reality after a night at a roadside park South Austin. Quit going to his National Guard drills, and the activation notice followed. Showed up at Fort Polk one month late after a mad dash with his brother and three others to California, then clean up to the Canadian border, where they were denied entry, then back home, giving up, then to Ft Polk, from when he left after one night. 

Lived in a trailer near his old home town, went to work as a janitor in Sherman. Went home at times, to his wife and two children. His wife didn't really want him there. She especially didn't want his trouble.

Was a very diffident individual, the wife. Scared of authority. Was afraid of the cable company. The cable company. He was in a dispute with them over a setup fee be didn't figure he owed. So we don't have cable, so what?

She contemplated sneaking down to the cable office to pay the fee, but they agreed to wipe it off the books. She was surprised and relieved. You'd think it was the FBI. 

That was coming up. 

They were looking for him. 

Went to his family home. Two agents. He should leave. Go where? They said that about Billy the Kid. Kills two deputies in a daring escape and doesn't leave Lincoln County. Maybe he just didn't know where to go. 

One night he and his brother left the house where his wife and children lived. They went to Denison, possibly, and were returning on Highway 82. Passed a sheriff cruiser going the other way. The brother said, "They're turning around."

They knew the auto they were in, including the license number. They didn't know which of the two was the suspect. "... said he had a mustache ..." one of the deputies had a clue. He had a mustache. His brother didn't. Instead of waiting for the detective work, he announced himself. Neither deputy thought to ask for ID. 

In the jail HQ. Nobody seemed to know what the charge was. "Ray knows sumpin' about it ..." 

Ray was the liquor control agent. His wife worked with the wife of the accused. 

Outstanding police work. They knew the license number of the auto they were using, even though it was not owned by or registered to either brother. They knew the suspect was mustachioed. But they didn't know which of two choices was their man, nor why they should be after him. 

No matter. It put the whole depressing business behind him eventually. It was no fun, and it might've gone on for a long while had his wife not ratted him out. .

He had an easy time in the army.  Sitting in the orderly room of the unit he would spend his 17 months sentence with, the clerk handed him a note from his 201 file. It was hand written, from his wife to the FBI, telling them she was not living with the Desperado nor was she responsible for anything be may've done. 

"You divorced?" asked the clerk. 

No, but he would be soon. 




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Why does Eloy Cavazos look so young?